Folding toy



July 7, 1970 M. R. BEHR 3,518,785

FOLDING TOY July 7, 1970 M. R. BEHR 3,518,785

FOLDING TOY Filed July l, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VEA/TOR.

ernefvdedzr TTRNE Y United States Patent O 3,518,785 FOLDING TOY Marion R. Behr, 24 Fishel Road, Edison, NJ. 08817 Filed July 1, 1968, Ser. No. 741,803 Int. Cl. A63h 33/00 U.S. Cl. 46--1 9 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE There is provided a novel educational toy comprising the representation of a figure such as a doll, an animal, or a machine `which may be folded and unfolded at will. The toy is so constructed that it may have disposed upon it textual material. The figure is encapsulated between two sheets of encapsulating material; and the said figure and said encapsulating material are subdivided into a plurality of panels which are connected to neighboring panels by foldable junctures. The novel toy, when folded, has the compactness of a book and the silhouette of a single panel, and when unfolded has the appearance and strength of a toy, having an unfolded silhouette approximating to the outline of the figure and, because of the textual material thereon has direct educational as well as entertainment value.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION Educational toys.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Folding paper toys are well known in the art. In recent years a modification of the folding toym-the Pop-Up Book has become popular. In this modification of the folding toy the opening of one or more leaves in a book causes a representation of some object or objects such as people or houses to rise out of the book. While these popup books have received a large measure of success, they suffer from a great sensitivity to destruction by their principal users. Heretofore it has not been possible to provide inexpensively an attractive toy which may be readily folded in the manner of a book and provide interesting, amusing, or, principally, educational text material so disposed upon the toy as to maintain the interest of the child in the toy as a toy.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION There is provided a novel educational toy comprising substantially a two dimensional representation of a figure or object which may be repeatedly folded into a small shape.

'Ihe toy is subdivided into a plurality of panels, each panel preferably having the same dimensions. When unfolded, the silhouetted outline of the toy approximates to the silhouette of the figure represented in the toy. In one modification of this invention textual material is disposed upon this toy in such a manner as to provide educational explanation without detracting from the basic attractiveness of the representation. It is a particular ad vantage of this toy that it may be repeatedly folded and unfolded in such a manner that the representation will be in no way damaged by such folding as has been the case with folding toys presently known in the art. Furthermore, in contrast to the folding toys of the art where folding is merely used for compacting, the folds here are placed for purposes of toy function. For example, the figure may be caused to sit, touch its toes, bend backwards, etc. without damage to the material from `which it is constructed. It is within the contemplation of the present invention that the representation may show either one or two sides of a figure. Thus the toy may show the front of a figure only, the front and back 3,518,785 Patented July 7, 1970 of a figure only, or it may have text material disposed upon either or both sides of the toy regardless of whether a representation is seen on the side of the toy bearing the textural material.

The compacting of the toy into a book-like shape is made possible by the novel structure wherein the toy is divided into mutually joined panels of, preferably, similar dimensions. The shape of said panels being selected so that when folded, the toy has the appearance of a single panel. The panels and their junctures are so arranged that the panels are foldable about the junctures between the panels.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. l shows an embodiment of the invention in the unfolded state.

FIG. 2 shows a portion of an encapsulated embodiment of the invention in the unfolded state.

FIG. 3 shows a portion of the printed text sheet.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment in a partially folded state.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment in the folded state.

FIG. 6 shows a cross section of the embodiment of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of the invention having triangular panels, in the unfolded state.

FIG. 8 shows the embodiment of FIG. 7 in the partially folded state.

FIG. 9 shows the embodiment of FIG. 7 in the folded state.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the preferred modification of the present invention a figure, for example a doll in national costume, an animal or bird or the like is drawn, printed or otherwise disposed by processes well known in the art, upon a backing sheet. This backing sheet may be of paper, cloth, or synthetic material such as plastic sheet. Any printable plastic sheet known to the art may be utilized. It is a critical aspect of the present invention that the representation be disposed upon the backing sheet in such a manner that the backing sheet may then be subdivided into panels. While it is not essential that all of the panels be rectangular it will be seen that all the panels except for those representing the extremities of the figure should be rectangular, preferably square. As will be seen from the figures some junctures of the panels will be mutually parallel and others mutually perpendicular so that the whole sheet, when folded, has substantially the appearance of one panel. Thus when unfolded the backing sheet will present a substantially rectangulated silhouette.

Alternatively the panels may also be in the form of equilateral triangles. In this modification Vthe folded form has a triangular silhouette. This form would be suitable for toys representing reptiles and the like.

In one modification of the invention the juncture of the panels to each other are embossed in manners well known to the plastic art in order to provide a joint which can be folded about said juncture. Where the backing sheet is plastic this embossing or creation of folding junctures, known to the art, forms an article which may be used as a toy per se. However where the backing sheet is of paper or cloth the article will not be satisfactory unless it is further encapsulated in the manner described immediately below.

In the preferred modification of the invention however, the backing sheet is encapsulated between two sheets of plastic material, similarly disposed in panels which are connected to each other in such a manner as to be foldable about the juncture between them. It is within the scope of the present invention that the backing sheet may be kept in one piece and then encapsulated.

It is also within the scope of the present invention that the panels of the backing sheet may be separated at their juncture points and separately encapsulated between the plastic cover sheets. Either method may be utilized depending on the particular mode of production chosen. The only criterion being that the encapsulated article should have substantially the same appearance to the viewer as would be provided by the backing sheet carrying the design prior to encapsulation.

In a further modification of the invention the backing sheet may have printed thereon, on either side, but preferably on the side which is to be considered the back thereof, textual material describing the representation. In yet a further modification of the invention, in place of printing or otherwise disposing the textural material directly upon the backing sheet it has been found desirable to print the textual material on a separate, transparent sheet similarly divided up into panels corresponding to the panels of the representation and disposing the sheet bearing the textual material upon, preferably, the back of the representation in such a manner that the printed panels are juxtaposed upon predetermined panels of the representation. It is to be understood that while the number of panels on the printed sheet may be the same as or less than the number of panels on one side of the representation they cannot of course exceed the total number of panels. It is to be further understood however, that it is also within the scope of the invention to print the printed sheet in such a manner that one portion of it will cover one side of the representation and the other portion will cover the other Side of the representation, thus enabling thereto be, at a maximum, twice the number of panels in the printed sheet prior to actual formation of the finished article than there are on the finished article itself.

FIG. l shows the backing sheet 20 showing the front portion of a figure representation 22 and the division of said backing sheet into panels 11 (two of which are specifically indicated) showing the junction between the panels. It is not necessary that the junction 10 be actually printed upon the backing sheet; the division may be made by embossing, indentation, or the like, provided there is made available a ready means of folding at that point. In the modification of the invention where the backing sheet is not encapsulated but is itself printed upon a sheet of substantially untearable material, the backing sheet may, if desired, be cut at the point indicated by the junction 10 and a junction of a different material may, if desired, be inserted at that point. Alternatively the junction may be formed in the material itself by methods well known in the plastic fabricating art.

FIG. 2 is a partial representation 30 of the encapsulated modification of the invention in which the panels are cut at the junctions 10` and separately encapsulated. It should be understood however that a similar encapsulated article wherein the panels are not separated prior to encapsulation are also within the scope of the invention. FIG. 2 shows the backing sheet 20 encapsulated between two plastic sheets 31 and 33. The junction 35 between the panels of the encapsulating sheets 31 and 33 is also indicated as well as the edge junction 36 between sheets 31 and 33.

The representation of FIG. 2 shows the front view only of the embodiment. FIG. 6 shows the section 6 6 of a portion of the embodiment showing a mode of disposing backing sheet upon the transparent sheet 40, it being understood that the transparent sheet 40 may if desired be cut into panels prior to encapsulation as shown, or left intact when encapsulated.

FIG. 3 shows the transparent sheet 40, having textual material disposed thereon, in the uncut state.

FIG. 4 indicates the manner in which one particular modification of the encapsulated article may be folded in order to provide the substantially flat form of the invention as shown in FIG. 5.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive privilege or property is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A compact folded toy, which when completely unfolded forms a toy comprising a backing sheet divided into a plurality of equidimensional panels, each of which is connected to the neighboring panels by a foldable juncture;

said backing sheet having a representation of a figure disposed thereon, wherein a portion of said representation is disposed upon each panel of said backing sheet in such manner that when said sheet is unfolded, its periphery approximates a silhouetted outline of said representation, and

two sheets of encapsulating material at least one of which is transparent, wherein the backing sheet is encapsulated -between said encapsulating sheets and said encapsulating sheets are subdivided into panels juxtaposed upon predetermined panels of the backing sheet, wherein said panels are foldable about their mutual junctures.

2. A toy according to claim 1 wherein said panels are each rectangular, whereby when said sheet is unfolded, its periphery appears as a rectangulated silhouetted outline and when folded the toy has a rectangular silhouette.

3. A toy according to claim 1 wherein said backing sheet has a front face and a rear face wherein one face of the toy shows a representation of the front of the figure and the other face of the toy shows a representation of the rear of the ligure.

y4. A toy according to claim 3 additionally comprising textual material secured upon one face of the figure.

5. A toy according to claim 1 wherein both encapsulating sheets are transparent.

6. A toy according to claim 1 additionally comprising (l) a transparent sheet having textual material secured thereon, said sheet being subdivided into rectangular panels of the same size and disposition as those of the backing sheet,

(2) said transparent sheet being secured upon the backing sheet and between said backing sheet and one of the encapsulating sheets adjacent thereto, in such a manner that each panel carrying textual material is juxtaposed upon a predetermined panel of the backing sheet. Y

7. A toy according to claim 1 wherein the panels are in the shape of equilaterial triangles.

8. A toy according to claim 7 additionally comprising textual material secured upon one face of the figure.

9. A toy according to claim 8 additionally comprising 1) a transparent sheet having textual material secured thereon, said sheet being subdivided into rectangular panels of the same size and disposition as those of the backing sheet,

(2) said transparent sheet being secured upon the backing sheet and between said backing sheet and one of the encapsulating sheets adjacent thereto, in such a manner that each panel carrying textual material is juxtaposed upon a predetermined panel of the backing sheet.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,547,967 7/1925 Shilhan 46-157 2,361,670 10/ 1944 Whitehead 40-2.2 2,395,247 2/1946 Buffenbarger 46-157 3,010,246` 11/1961 England 46-1 3,221,428 12/1965 Fischler et al 40-2.2 3,386,196 6/1968 Razzolini 46-1 LOUIS G. MANCENE, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 46-157 

